Summary
Inseminated females of the leafcutting antAtta texana (Buckley) may cooperate during colony foundation. Cooperative efforts in the laboratory lead directly to large stable polygynous colonies, which is an uncommon pattern in ants.
Although single females successfully reared worker offspring and started fungus cultures, grouped ants produced more workers and larger fungus cultures. Larger females and grouped ants had a higher survival rate before workers emerged in the laboratory.
Grouped and single females both lost about 30% of their initial weight before the first workers appeared. The females lost an additional 25–35 % over the next five months, suggesting that continuing investment by foundress females may be critical to colony survival after workers emerge.
Females ofA. texana are among the smallest known in the genus, and I suggest that primary polygyny is adaptively associated with small female size in this species.
Resume
Des femelles inséminées de la fourmi champignonnisteAtta texana (Buckley) peuvent coopérer au cours de la fondation de la colonie. Au laboratoire, des efforts coopératifs aboutissent directement au maintien de grandes colonies polygynes, ce qui est un patron peu répandu chez les fourmis.
Bien que des femelles isolées élevèrent avec succès une progéniture d'ouvrières et initièrent la culture du champignon, les femelles groupées produisirent davantage d'ouvrières et de jardin à champignon. Les plus grandes femelles isolées et les femelles groupées ont eu un taux de survie plus élevé avant l'éclosion des ouvrières, au laboratoire.
Les femelles groupées, comme les femelles isolées, perdent environ 30 % de leur poids initial avant l'apparition des premières ouvrières. Les femelles en perdent encore 25 à 30% dans les cinq mois suivants, ce qui suggère que l'investissement continuel des fondatrices peut être critique pour la survie de la colonie après l'éclosion des ouvrières.
Les femelles d'A. texana sont parmi les plus petites dans le genre, et je suggère que la polygynie primaire est adaptativement associée à la petite taille des femelles dans cette espèce.
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Mintzer, A.C. Primary polygyny in the antAtta texana: Number and weight of females and colony foundation success in the laboratory. Ins. Soc 34, 108–117 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02223829
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02223829